Wiley InterScience: Journal: Abstract: "Does materialism predict racism? materialism as a distinctive social attitude and a predictor of prejudice
Arne Roets *, Alain Van Hiel, Ilse Cornelis
Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
email: Arne Roets (Arne.Roets@Ugent.be)

*Correspondence to Arne Roets, Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.

Abstract
Previous research reported that Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) constitute the individual's ideological space and are strong dispositional determinants of racism. In the present study, materialism was examined as a third social attitude and a potential predictor of racism. In a student (N = 183) and heterogeneous adult sample (N = 176) analyses revealed that RWA, SDO and materialism constitute three separate dimensions and that each of them explains a unique part of the variance in racism. In addition, Structural Equation Modelling showed that the relationship between materialism and racism was largely mediated by selfish motives. In the discussion we go further into the role of materialism as a third social attitudinal dimension. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received: 6 June 2004; Accepted: 25 May 2005"